An attorney for the National Center for Youth Law said the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into allegations of ongoing racial discrimination against Native America students by staff in the Loleta Union School District.

The center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California joined with California Indian Legal Services to make the request in December. The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a federal lawsuit in December against Eureka City Schools, alleging pervasive and systemic racism and sexism in the district.

According the complaint, staff at Loleta Elementary School allegedly physically assaulted Native American students, including allegations the superintendent twisted their ears while saying “See how red it’s getting?”, used racial slurs in front of Native American students and routinely suspended or expelled Native American students for minor behavioral infractions.

An earlier post we had on this is here. It is good to see the OCR is opening an investigation into these allegations. We have also recently posted this subject here and here.